The Spoken Word

CURRENTS - Tidbits to use and amuse

March 16, 1987

``Sometimes, if you have children, they resent your fame and success, and they get back at you. They wait until you die, and then they write a book saying horrible things about you. Out of greed. And sometimes they don`t even wait until you`re dead. So maybe it`s good I didn`t have children.``

- actress Ginger Rogers, in a Parade

magazine interview.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN?

The following item is to be read to the tune of The Wanderer (with apologies to Dion and the Belmonts):

Well, we`re the kind of folks who like to move around. We`re never in one place, we move from town to town.

We pack up our belongings and move to another state. But we don`t always know the ins-and-outs, so our moves don`t go so great.

So Bekins Van Lines has a new idea, to help us with our haul. It`s called The Moving Picture, and it`s free to one and all.

It`s a 15-minute video with tips on how to move. Just pop it in your VCR and watch it on your tube.

There are tips on how to pack and plan, tips on when to start. Tips on keeping records - tips to keep at heart.

Just call your local Bekins agent on the telephone. And he`ll send you The Moving Picture tape to help you start your roam.

Americans have modest ambitions, guided by pragmatism and love, The Wall Street Journal discovered in a national survey titled ``The American Dream.``

The survey, conducted by the Roper Organization, showed that what people wanted most, in order, is a high school education for themselves, freedom to choose how to live, their own home, a college education for their kids, a college education for themselves and financial security.

The aspirations of most people responding to the survey can be characterized as realistic. For instance, on average, Americans said they could fulfill their dream of financial security on $50,000 a year. That is more than twice the respondents` median income of $23,000. But in an era when one financial magazine says you are not successful unless you earn a salary equal to your age times $1,500, it is a modest amount. Only 38 percent of those responding to the Journal survey craved megabucks.

A TIGHT SQUEEZE

There`s bad news for those who spend their days cruising city streets looking for a place to park. The Kiplinger Washington Letter predicts that in the coming years parking spaces will be increasingly hard to come by in urban areas. In addition, the available spaces will be made smaller.

In many cities, the newsletter reports, developers receive concessions when they limit parking in and around their buildings. There is a method to this seemingly convoluted municipal madness. What city officials hope to do is spur ridership on subways and buses or at least encourage more moderate forms of mass transit, such as car and van pools.

According to the newsletter, some cities also allow higher density developments to builders who donate a chunk of change to mass transit.

THIS WEEK IS

Camp Fire Birthday Week

National Poison Prevention Week

Significant days this week:

Black Press Day (today)

Camp Fire Founders Day (Tuesday)

St. Patrick`s Day (Tuesday)

Earth Day (Friday)

The Great American Meatout (Friday)

Spring (Friday)

Fragrance Day (Saturday)

Memory Day (Saturday)

National Agriculture Day (Saturday)

National Teen-Agers Day (Saturday)

REDUCED PAPERWORK

In an attempt to reduce paperwork and increase accuracy, the U.S. Bureau of the Census gave fieldworkers in rural Mississippi lap-top computers to carry door-to-door as they tried to match households with obscure addresses.

Bureau officials were overjoyed with the results. Not only did they get a ``paperless`` address list, but, according to American Demographics magazine, the computers ``only failed once - when a respondent`s baby burped on the keyboard and shorted out the memory.``

DADDY ON DRUGS?

The bookstores are full of books for parents who are worried that their children are on drugs. Now, two enterprising women - a family therapist and a children`s books author - have collaborated to write a book for children who are worried that their parents are druggies.

Different Like Me, by Evelyn Leite and Pamela Espeland, calls itself the ``first book that looks at the problem from the children`s side.`` While that may be an exaggeration, this much is clear - it`s the first that asks $6.95 to look at it. If you want to buy one for your child contact your local bookstore, or call 1-800-231-5165.

GRADUATION GAP

As many young women as men enroll in college these days, but a University of Virginia study finds that the numbers differ markedly at graduation exercises.

Daphne Spain of the university`s sociology department and Suzanne Bianchi of the Census Bureau found a 7 percent graduation gap between men and women.